Bangko Sentral: Cash remittances up 7.9% to $2.1B in Sept.

Money sent home through banks by overseas Filipinos rose 7.9 percent to $2.1 billion in September from $1.95 billion a year earlier on the back of sustained deployment of workers, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas said Monday.

 

In January to September, cash remittances reached $17.6 billion, a 6.1 percent climb from .6 billion in the same period last year.

 

The growth in remittances year-on-year is expected within 6 to 7 percent, Security Bank Corp. economist Patrick Ella told GMA News Online.

 

"With remittances growing in that range, we'll most likely hit $24-25 billion for the full year," he said.

 

The central bank noted remittances remained resilient on the back of sustained demand overseas for skilled Filipino manpower.

 

Preliminary reports from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showed job orders reached 680,392, of which 43.1 percent were processed for service, production, and professional, technical and related workers in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Taiwan, and Qatar.

 

The central bank said cash remittances from land-based workers grew by 5.4 percent to $13.5 billion while that of sea-based workers increased by 8.3 percent to $4.2 billion.

 

"The bulk of cash remittances (about 80 percent) came from the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, Hong Kong, and Canada," it said.

 

Bangko Sentral also attributed the higher cash transfers to a growing network of bank and non-bank channels worldwide and efforts of remittance service providers to expand financial services.

 

As of end-September, the number of commercial banks’ established tie-ups, remittance centers, correspondent banks, and branches/representative offices abroad totaled 4,587, up 4 percent year-on-year.

 

Personal remittances reached $2.3 billion, 8.1 percent higher than the $2.16 billion registered. 

 

This brought the nine-month inflows to $19.6 billion, a 6.7 percent increase from $18.34 billion.

 

"The increase in personal remittances in the first nine months of the year was driven largely by the steady increase in transfers from land-based workers with work contracts of one year or more (5.4 percent), and sea-based and land-based workers with work contracts of less than one year (8.2 percent)," the central bank said. – VS, GMA News